Monday 22 September 2008

Nobody likes a winner

Human nature is amazing. I think it shines through most truly in toddlers - they can be totally selfish, unreasonable and display no regard for others.  We all have that in us, and as we grow up we learn tight control over ourselves that enables us to conform to societal norms. Or at least most of us do.

Why the preamble then? Because every once in a while some of our less desirable traits get through all our filters and screening, as I was lolariously reminded this weekend.

I've come back today from a very pleasant break at the Sandymouth holiday park near Bude in Cornwall with my brother and his wife. As well as being very pleasant, it was also very successful with us winning pretty much everything possible. We won 2 out of 3 evening quizzes (2nd in the other by 2 points, joined in halfway through) and with us winning at bingo every night, including taking £57 of the £67 pot last night.

Following on from our massive bingo WIN, we had a damn good go at winning a game called "Stop the bus" which involved answering a set of questions using only words starting with the given letter for each round. As soon as you had a full set, you had to shout "Stop the bus!" at which point your answers would be read out to everyone for their agreement. In the case of any dispute, objections to a particular answer could be raised and then upheld or overrulled by the masses. It turned out to be a much better game than expected, mostly because objections could pretty much be made up on the spot to scupper the competition.

From fairly early on in the game, it was clear that the tide of popular opinion had turned against us, with many objections to our (correct) answers and also a lack of support for upholding our objections against other teams. The icing on the cake that inspired this post however, was what happened after the game when I went to the bar. I was approached by an older lady (mid 60s?) who said the following:

Her: When are you leaving?
Me: Tomorrow.
Her: Thank goodness for that, we might stand a chance of winning something.

What really threw me was that she wasn't even buying a drink, she'd left her seat and come all the way over to the bar just to get that off her chest. Talk about getting pwned.

I guess perhaps we can only be happy for the successes of those we know well, whereas the fortune of strangers brings out our worst jealousy and spite. Ah well, no matter, I'm up £46.30 from bingo and have 2 certificates and cuddly toys from our quiz wins. In her face!

1 comment:

James Morcom said...

Is a holiday park a generally working class destination, where they probably don't appreciate someone with a wealthier upbringing and university education rubbing their noses in it by waltzing out with their hard-earned once-a-year holiday spending money, in times of financial difficulty?

Having said that, unless her team came second, she should stfu and try harder :)